


4:19

by ava_jamison



Category: Batman (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: Dick Grayson - Freeform, Gen, Jason Todd - Freeform, tim drake - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 12:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12682068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ava_jamison/pseuds/ava_jamison
Summary: Bruce and Clark have a conversation about raising sons. Clark is struggling with how to relate to Conner.





	4:19

Clark is here. He’s been here for a full minute and twenty-eight seconds and has not yet announced his presence. It is 4:19 a.m. and my patience wears thin. 

“What is it, Clark?”

“I am…” He comes down to stand beside my console. He looks down, then up at the roof, seeing nothing, choosing his words. “Connor.”

“You are casually cruel to him.”

Superman blinks. “You don’t even call him by his name.”

“Your interest is sporadic at best. You offer directives but do not follow through.”

“I don’t know how to give him—”

“He lives to please you.”

“It’s too much.”

“Responsibility?”

“I… never thought I’d have a—” 

Liability? Partner? Sidekick? Ward? (The word hurts.) “Son?” (The word aches.) 

“I can’t—don’t think of him that way.”

“Why not, Kal?”

Superman looks as though he’s been struck. “It’s too—” He tries again. “To see… certain aspects of myself.”

I swirl my coffee, staring down into my cup. “I have had similar thoughts.”

"But you—"

“Clark, I've made many, many mistakes 

“He makes me realize…”

“Yes.”

“That I’m both more and less than I—“

“Than you want to be.”

“Than I am.”

“You act as though he’s more alien than you are.”

Clark’s brow furrows. Another direct hit. 

“And yet he is yours.”

“Not by my choosing.

“We do not choose our family, Clark.”

Clark stares across the cave, seeing nothing.

“You think he will suffer from knowing you.”

“He’s… his need is so great for everything.”

“You move planets. You occasionally win arguments with Lois Lane. You can handle this.”

“How do you do it, Bruce?”

“You do it as well. With Tim, with Dick.” With Jason.

“They’re different.”

“Because they do not remind you of yourself.”

“Yes.”

“Or more specifically, of the parts you like the least.”

“Yes.”


End file.
